#2 Rookie Season

[Reno]

<a href='http://sslforums.com/index.php?showtopic=224&view=findpost&p=1995' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>cpt #1</a><br><a href='http://sslforums.com/index.php?showtopic=448' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>player page</a><br><br>359 words<br><br>Alexandra’s rookie season was definitely a solid one all things considered. A 2nd round pick for an expansion team, there was zero pressure for her to actually perform that well, but she took the opportunity given and ran with it. The team itself was surprisingly solid out of the gate. Never really a dynamic offensive juggernaut, the team won its games through shutdown defense and aggressive counter attacking forcing weaker defensive teams into errors. While nowhere near as potent offensively as Hollywood FC or as strong defensively as Athenai FC, they did a good job carving out their position in the standings. When you’re an expansion team the goal is to just be presentable, and Catalunya did more than that, managing to finish in the top half of the standings which was incredible. Gunnarsson came out swinging, and while never being the best goalie in the league, managed to find herself on several leaderboards for goalies, often being toe to toe with some of the bigger names in the entire league. 5th in the league in wins with 4, which is incredible considering Cataluyna earned the nickname “Draw FC” for their incredible 7 draws in 14 games. Gunnarsson also finished 5th in the league with clean sheets with 3, only two behind some solid keepers in Adam Rage and Tony Yeboah, and only 3 behind the cream of the crop in the league in Jannik Andersen and Scott Sterling. Where she really made her mark was in save percentage. Never really asked to stop a ton of shots due to the system, she stepped up when she had to and finished 5th in the league in save percentage with 72.5%, just a few ticks under the 73.44% of Scott Sterling showing that Gunnarsson wasn’t far from the top in terms of the league elites. Also managing to avoid top 5 in most goals conceded is an amazing statline as well, showcasing her amazing grasp for the position and knowing how to stop balls effectively. All in all, a very solid rookie season for Gunnarsson, who looks to expand on it and become even better in the following few years.<br><br><span style='color:blue'>APPROVED</span>

[C9Van]

<a href='http://sslforums.com/index.php?showtopic=419' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Owen 44</a><br><a href='http://sslforums.com/index.php?showtopic=224&st=30&#entry2358' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>CPT #1</a><br><br>Owen 44 is a man built around hype. Not just the odd second of adrenaline but damn near 24/7. The man never runs out of energy to be hyped about anything. It does not sound sustainable but he manages it because Owen is that damn talented. Look no further than the man who scored 1 less goal than all of Montreal in his rookie season and was robbed of rookie of the season by jealous general managers and the current top scorer of the entire SSL who has scored about as many as some of the lower end teams.<br><br>He knows the FM engine better than everyone but Tim Possible and Xhaka. Thousands upon thousands of hours dated back to Football Manager 06 is hard to beat and it shows as we as an expansion team are dominating teams at times. Owen leads the attack for them and is very, very hard to stop so just imagine him when he actually hits his peak. So yeah I would say Owen went from scary rookie to one of the scariest strikers in the whole entire league very quickly which is always amazing to see.<br><br>Considering the players around him as well in his 2nd season compared to his 1st it is quite a big impact. I am happy to see Tokyo have started to find goals properly than just relying on Owen 44 for the majority of them but it feels even better for Owen to have less than 50% of Sydney's total goals whilst still scoring more than 1 goal per game or less than 90 minutes per goal. Those are some stats anyone would take at any point.<br><br>I am hoping to take what Owen managed in his rookie season and continue this for a long, long time to cement the all time top scorer of the league forever. But first lets walk before running and get the season all time goals records. According to the index in 12 games I have scored a nice 14 goals so I am 4 off the record. Which should be taken soon and prove Owen Forty Four in just his rookie and sophomore season is 1 to watch or fear if you're a defender.<br><br>[373 words]<br><br><span style='color:blue'>APPROVED</span>

[Canadice]

<a href='https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=224&view=findpost&p=1524' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>CPT#1</a><br><a href='https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=40' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Player Page</a><br><br>The first season saw Lind playing in a different position than what he was normally used to in his youth career. <!--emo&:athenai:--><img src='https://files.jcink.net/uploads2/simsoccer/teamEmotes/AFC.png' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='https://files.jcink.net/uploads2/simsoccer/teamEmotes/AFC.png' /><!--endemo--> had a lack of central defenders so Lind and Budget Busquets took it upon themselves to retool for a more defensive performance. It all worked out as the team combined for the fewest goals against in the entire league with 13 in 10 matches. If you look specifically on only Lind, he played over 1110 minutes in 12 games, ran almost 130 km, scored a great goal off a header, was fifth in the league in passing percentage, dominated in the air with 25 key headers but also managed to stay very clean with only 3 fouls committed. He hopes to be able to continue the great defensive dominance with his new teammate Eirlys Snooks. <br><br>The team performed adequate throughout the season, placing themselves 3rd in the league and losing out to Inter London in the SSL Cup Semi finals after extra time away from home. That game had an unexpected ending as the entire Athênai team thought they had advanced after losing 2-3 at the end of 90 minutes, tying the aggregate but having more away goals scored. When the referee blew for extra time it came as a shock to them all, an unfortunately they could not get themselves together enough to pull off a victory as London scored the only goal during the extra time. <br><br>On a personal note, this was the first time Lind was away from home for longer than a couple of weeks. Acclimating to the new climate of Athens and Greece was also difficult. The warm nights was something Henrik did not get used to quickly, but eventually he became acclimated with somewhat short sunny days during the summer and winter compared to back home. In the north of Sweden the sun practically never sets during the summer and never rises during the winter, so having a stable day/night cycle has been good. Getting into a rhythm both on and off the pitch will probably see Henrik Lind to great heights in the second season of his career.<br><br><!--c1--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1' id='CODE-WRAP'><tr><td><b>CODE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='CODE'><!--ec1--><br>Words: 357<br><!--c2--></td></tr></table><!--ec2--><br><br><span style='color:blue'>APPROVED</span>

[G2019]

<a href='http://sslforums.com/index.php?showtopic=144&view=findpost&p=226' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Connor Azpilicueta Player Page</a><br><a href='http://sslforums.com/index.php?showtopic=224&view=findpost&p=676' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Career PT #1</a><br><br>Connor Azpilicueta's rookie season was certainly an interesting one. The now-striker will look back with some fondness on the first of his two seasons at center back, even though the position isn't one that yields a ton of glory. The rookie captain put in a solid, if underwhelming performance in his first professional season. The young Gibraltarian completed 886 of 903 passes (98.12%) as Inter London played a rather conservative passing game in the back. Azpilicueta proved himself to be a force in the air as well, winning an insane 153 of 163 headers (93.87%). 23 or those headers proved to be 'key headers' as Azpi did his best to lock down opposing attackers and keep the ball out of Inter London's net. Azpilicueta chose to stay in position rather than diving in frequently, so his tackling numbers were pretty limited, as he won 11 of 16 tackles for a nice 69% rate. He had 3 key tackles, 1 mistake leading to a goal (not bad for a rookie center back!), and 29 interceptions. Connor was named MotM one time and had a pedestrian average match rating of 7.0, which put him about in the middle of the limited number of center backs active in the league during season one.<br><br>Team-wise, Inter got their club off to a strong start in season one, finishing 2nd in the league on 19 points, just 3 behind league winners Cairo. Inter also finished as runners up in the SSL cup, establishing themselves as a team to watch in the future of the league. The club really worked to establish an identify as one of the premier teams in the league, and season one set the tone for what would be to come, with one and a half further seasons in the book as of now. Even with the position swap to striker for season 3, Azpilicueta will look back on his center back days with reassurance knowing he was able to do a job in a position that was less than glamorous, but absolutely needed for his club. The club will look to continue with their winning ways, building off of the strong foundation they build that first season, and I'm hopeful we will some day look back at some of our season one players and club lifers as legends of this great club.<br><br><!--c1--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1' id='CODE-WRAP'><tr><td><b>CODE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='CODE'><!--ec1-->395 words<!--c2--></td></tr></table><!--ec2--><br><br><span style='color:blue'>APPROVED</span>

[SteveAiva]

<a href='https://sslforums.com/index.php?showtopic=224&view=findpost&p=4778' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>CPT #1</a><br><a href='https://sslforums.com/index.php?showtopic=745&view=findpost&p=4331' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Player Page</a><br><br><span style='font-family:Courier'>Leonidas, as his name also states judging by history, is a great fighter and that went on to be proved in his rookie season. Not too shabby because he joined in the middle of the season, but still having good performances to establish his name on what meant to be a great start in the league. <i>(some would also argue that his rookie season is better than his sophomore one but shut up)</i><br><br>Leonidas started off slow yet good. He immediately found a spot in the Catalunya starting XI, after Coach Busquets gave him his immediate trust. His debut was made in a match against Rio, a debut that went the wrong way for all the possible reasons. Catalunya is 1-0 up and in the second half Sinclair takes a shot after cutting inside, the ball seems to blast to the net, but Leo gets in front and kicks it to the net, even though he was offside, thus resulting to a disallowed goal, a goal that would have been gold as it wouldn’t make Catalunya continue the curse of Drawlunya. Yells in the locker room, Leo’s confidence low but never zero. He would do whatever it takes to redeem himself. Then a worse game for him and the team as well. If the Tokyo game was this bad, Leo would be overlooked and possibly be just another striker… But he would not let that happen. 37th minute, Leo runs with the ball to the Tokyo area, goalkeeper makes an outing, Leo… passes the ball? <b>AND THAT IS AN ASSIST AS LEO SAW THE POSITION OF THE GOALIE AND PASSED IT BEHIND FOR A SHOT.</b> And that’s not it yet, as in the 55th minute, Leo makes a cut, gets the pass, goes 1v1 with the goalie and with patience slams it to the top corner to make it 3-0. And that’s where the confidence gets picked up, resulting in another great goal in the next match at London, the winning one, as well as a goal in the last match against Cairo, giving Catalunya their best finish in the league(4th) and breaking the curse of Drawlunya. <br><br>Leonidas showed in his 5 games that he could do everything. <i>Prolific passer</i> as he was one of the best passers in his position, and with more games that could be proven in the stats. <b>3G and 1A in 5 games</b> with an <b>AvR of 7.08</b> is a great look for a raw prospect that only had two weeks to train. This showed that the sky is the limit for the young Greek fellow and who knows? Maybe he will break a lot of records and become one of the best players the league has ever seen. <i>Dreams, dreams and more dreams…</i></span><br><br>459 words<br><br><span style='color:blue'>APPROVED</span>

[ZootTX]

<a href='http://sslforums.com/index.php?showtopic=224&view=findpost&p=584' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>CPT #1</a><br><a href='http://sslforums.com/index.php?showtopic=99' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Player Page</a><br><br><br>George Costanza’s rookie season in the SSL was certainly a new and eye opening one. First, he had to move, not only from New York City where he’d spent his entire life, but to a completely new country that spoke a language he didn’t have the faintest idea on how to speak. ortunately, the city seemed very welcoming to the new soccer players moving in to play for the team and most of the locals were gracious enough to tolerate his poor language skills.<br><br>Rio was much hotter than New York City, so George spent a great deal of time acclimating himself to the very different climate. It wasn’t until the end of training camp that he finally felt like himself again and got into the groove of the game of football. Fortunately, many of his fellow players also had the same issues, so he wasn’t alone in his struggles. He was able to meet a lot of new folks and go new places and was feeling like he fit in a lot better both with his teammates and out in the general public.<br><br>Once the regular season kicked off there wasn’t much time for fun and games though, as the team spent a lot of time traveling to places like Hollywood, London, Tokyo, and Cairo. George’s previous experience involved traveling a few states away at most! Unfortunately, the new team struggled mightily and didn’t get a win until their 6th game, at home against Hollywood. The team would finish the season at the bottom of the standings, winning only 3 games to go along with 1 draw and 6 losses. Not an ideal start for the new team in Rio.<br><br>George’s personal performance was slightly better, and he ended the season 5th in interceptions and also got two Player of the Game awards. However, his cross percentage was abysmal at 33% and he could have done a lot better with his headers at 84%. At least that gave him targets to work on during the offseason! George ended the season obviously disappointed with the way things had gone but he was hopeful that next season would be a lot better both personally and as a team. He was still excited to be in Rio and looking forward to the challenge of becoming a better soccer player.<br><br><!--c1--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1' id='CODE-WRAP'><tr><td><b>CODE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='CODE'><!--ec1-->387 words<!--c2--></td></tr></table><!--ec2--><br><br><span style='color:blue'>APPROVED</span>

[Bauer]

<a href='https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=224&view=findpost&p=9060' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>CPT1</a><br><a href='https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=874&view=findpost&p=5179' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Player Page</a><br><br>The rookie season for my player, Skoomina Hulk a Votto was surely something. Going into this season, I figured it would be a tough road to go up against the already established teams here in the SSL, and it surely was. Sydney City was a brand new team having just gone through the expansion draft. They did incredibly well considering the people that were left unprotected and already had a good solid base to work from. I knew going into this player that I wanted to be a midfield god. I really don’t care much about scoring, just care about getting the ball into a position for the attackers and hoping they can finish. Amazingly this season, I was near the top of the league in assists already. It does help that we have probably the best striker in the league in Owen Forty Four. There was quite a few times where I set up really nice plays that probably should have turned into scoring opportunities, but part of that is the product of us being probably the youngest team in the league and a little behind in the ratings department. Considering this was my rookie season and i’m well behind some of the top earning midfield players in the league, it’s pretty insane to me that I led the league or was close to the league lead in some pretty cool stats. I led the entire league in key passes which like I said before, is one of the main things I care about. I was near the top of the league in assists, mostly didn’t lead because again, Sydney is a young team. I also had one of the highest cross percentages in the league, especially among those who cross the ball often. I was pretty good on the set piece department, a few assists coming from corner kicks as well. The scary thing is, it’s really only up from this point on right? Sydney City are going to keep improving every single week, we didn’t lose anything super crazy in the expansion draft and we have a huge lineup of great users. I think this rookie season for Skoomina was the high tempo start to a potentially hall of fame career here in the SSL.<br><br><span style='color:blue'>APPROVED</span>

[Laser]

<a href='http://sslforums.com/index.php?showtopic=224&view=findpost&p=6770' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>CPT-1</a><br><a href='http://sslforums.com/index.php?showtopic=1073&view=findpost&p=6658' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Player Page</a><br><br>During Pascal Anivierre's first season in the Simulation Soccer League, he was not the greatest player in the world, in fact having one of the worst average ratings in the entire league at 6.59. However, as a right attacking midfielder, Pascal did show his goalscoring prowess, netting the ball on four of four penalty attempts and scoring another four times from the field, adding on another four assists to give him a hand in 12 of bottom-dwelling Cairo City FC's 23 goals, more than half. He also picked up one player of the match award on the season. He created 7.87 xG on the season, second on the team to striker Franco Torres, and placed 25 of his 45 shots on the net, edging Torres' 24 of 45 for a 56% accuracy rate. He dealt a 84.39% passing rate, which while not the best, is acceptable enough and is something he will continue to work on throughout the season. However, Pascal truly struggles crossing the ball, only hitting ten of his fifty-six attempts for a 17.86% completion rate. He also struggled with headers a good deal, only winning just over half of his attempts with a 51.52% success rate. He was quite good with tackles, going 68% for a very decent if not good success rate. He was able to draw 30 fouls, but fouled 21 times, so will need to work on the mental part of his game a good bit, especially as he was offsides 11 times, at least one of which cost him a sharp goal. As for Cairo as a whole, they won only two matches the entire season, while managing to draw three. They lost the remaining 15 contests. They scored only 23 goals on the season, which surprisingly was not the least in the league, but allowed a by far league high 54 goals, 17 more than the nearest opponent. Their goal differential was -31, also 17 worse than the nearest opponent. As a matter of fact, each of these statistics outside of the goals scored is a league record for worst in league history. While admittedly only 3 seasons in, it just goes to show the disaster Cairo was. However, with the entrance of the new season and a new manager, we expect we will be far better than last season. We don't expect to win the league, but we are aiming for a top-half finish and to score many more goals than previously, hopefully up to 50 or more scattered between our 3 goal scoring monsters Torres, Azpilicueta, and of course young phenom Anivierre. Pascal is looking forward to the new energy and new season and cannot wait to feel the elation of a well-struck ball finding the back of the net again.<br><br><span style='color:blue'>APPROVED</span>

[marco999]

Player: <a href='https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=972' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Pierre Houde</a> <!--emo&:cairo:--><img src='https://files.jcink.net/uploads2/simsoccer/teamEmotes/CFC.png' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='https://files.jcink.net/uploads2/simsoccer/teamEmotes/CFC.png' /><!--endemo--> <br>Career PT #1 : <a href='https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=224&view=findpost&p=5910' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Link</a><br><br>It's been a roller coaster of a first season for Pierre Houde on Cairo City FC. Drafted high with even higher expectations, the young Canadian played in all 20 games for Cairo, for the better or for the worse, but let's be honest, mostly for the worse. 1800 minutes on the pitch is a lot and it gave Houde a lot of time to work on his craft. <br><br>Let's start with the goodside of Houde. He is highly efficient. He had one shot on target and it led to a goal. A beautiful redirection on an indirect free kick, it really came out of the nowhere and it really was the high point of his season. He's also a decent header, with a 78.63% completion rate on headers, which is middle of the pack. You could also say that Pierre is a highly efficient passer, with a 94.64% completion percentage, which is one of the highest in the whole league, but that's mostly due to the fact that he doesn't complicate things and usually passes it back or to the other defender.<br><br>While he has a lot of success with his passes, he also led the league in a stat you absolutely don't want to lead... mistakes leading to goals, with five. The other people in this category have 2 at most, which puts Houde heads and shoulders above everyone else. Another embarassing stat about Houde is his low amount of interceptions, especially for a defender, with a measly 46, while the league leader has 97. An outsider could also ask with good reason what Houde was actually doing on the pitch because he has a worryingly low 14 attempted tackles during the season and has only won 8. Both the number of tackles and the completion percentage are embarassing. <br><br>On a personal level, the season was in ups and downs, but the season for Houde ended well compared to the start.<br><br>The season in general for Cairo City was disastrous, with the squad experiencing a lengthy losing streak that was tough for morale, but the team persevered and ended the year with some competitive results. With the arrival of a new manager that will hopefully stick long term, it helped the club and hopefully it's the start of a good stretch for Cairo. Last to first!<br><br>387 words<br><br><span style='color:blue'>APPROVED</span>

[retuperkele]

<a href='http://sslforums.com/index.php?showtopic=224&view=findpost&p=6211' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>CPT#1</a><br><a href='http://sslforums.com/index.php?showtopic=954' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Player page for Aimo Tälli</a><br><br><br>Aimo Tälli was anxiously waiting for the prospect draft, this was the first pinpoint in his career that he had been waiting for. Some sources say that he was one of the hottest players in the draft, and teams such as Hollywood and Athenai had been keeping a very close eye on him. During the first round, plethora of defenders were picked up so he got a little discouraged, being exhausted from staying up very late due to the draft happening in the early morning for him, all of his waiting could finally end: he got picked up by Buenos Aires, along with Antonio Governo and Jaume Vila.<br><br>The three actually met up at the airport by accident, they all had booked the same flight to Buenos Aires. There were some serious topics, but also very casual topics, and a bond was made at the first moments. Finally, after arriving in Buenos Aires, they were greeted by the entire coaching staff of CABA. After his first month in Argentina, playing for Buenos Aires had started to feel more and more like playing in his hometown in Finland, surrounded by great atmosphere and pleasant fellow players and coaching staff.<br><br>During his rookie season, he started in nearly all of the games for his team. In 18 games for his team, he scored 5 goals and notched himself 2 assists in top of it. He was rather succesful in his passing, despite playing his first season, as he managed to close out a bit over 84% of all of his passes during the season. With xG of 3.04 for the entire season, it is safe to say that he exceeded expectations his team had set for him. Over the course of his season, Aimo had managed to clinch himself a spot for the starting 11 for his team, as their leading attacking midfielder. <br><br>In general, the key thing that his first season was missing were the assists he had been craving on very heavily. All the players and staff in the league know that Aimo likes to pass more than score, so only time will tell if this kid will become the next Andres Iniesta or will he flop like Alen Halilovic.<br><br><span style='color:blue'>APPROVED</span>